President of Tatarstan (Russia) spoke against “our federal authorities”

The President of Tatarstan Rustam Minnikhanov accused Kremlin of taking money away from donor regions, and violation of the Constitution.

He commented on the situation when the federal center takes significant amount of money from economically successful regions in order to maintain subsidized regions, thus reducing to naught any economic success.

“This applies to a small number of regions, like 10-12, and seriously applies to 5- 6 regions,” said Minnikhanov.

According to him, Tatarstan realizes “that it is necessary to maintain the recipient regions, but not at the expense of worsening the situation that we have here. For the next year we have 8 billion (approx. $130 million – RRT) less than this year. So, all our earnings in the next year, if we work hard, will only cover what was taken from us.”

The politician criticized “some of our federal leaders”, which he believes provide incorrect reports to the President of the Russian Federation that taking the money away doesn’t have negative consequences.

“Probably, the President is being told that it is painless,” continued Minnikhanov. “How can it be painless?It is painful, and we have to express our opinion that it is wrong.Huge amounts of money are “lost” by Moscow, Khanty-Mansiysk, St. Petersburg, and us.”

Minnikhanov was supported by Speaker of Tatarstan State Council Farid Mukhametshin, who noted that the practice of obtaining money from donors violates the Russian Constitution for the sake of implementation of the “May presidential decrees” in the neighboring regions.“We object,” the speaker said.